Burns propels Wild past Avalanche

ST. PAUL, Minnesota (Ticker) - The Minnesota Wild rest atop the
Northwest Division with a two-point cushion, at least for one
night.

Defenseman Brent Burns had a goal and an assist and Branko
Radivojevic added his second game-winning goal of the season as
the Wild skated to a 3-1 triumph over the Colorado Avalanche on
Monday.

Stephane Veilleux added an empty-net goal with 6.4 seconds left
for Minnesota (39-26-8), which moved past Colorado (39-29-6) and
idle Calgary (37-25-10).

"These last nine games are all going to be playoff style games,"
said Brian Rolston, who assisted on Burns' goal. "This gets us
prepared for the big show."

Burns opened the scoring with a power-play goal just 8:54 into
the first period. The blue-liner recorded his 14th goal of the
season after accepting a feed from Rolston and firing a low
wrist shot inside the left post from the slot.

"I've been getting some lucky bounces and the forwards are
making great plays," Burns said. "(Todd Fedoruk) screened the
goalie, he didn't even see it."

Joe Sakic leveled the contest just under five minutes into the
second period on nearly an identical goal. Defenseman
John-Michael Liles fed Sakic from behind the net, and the
captain fired a wrist shot from the high slot, beating
goaltender Niklas Backstrom on the stick side.

"We got one power-play goal, but obviously, we would have liked
to have had more," said Sakic, who notched his 15th goal in 39
career games against the Wild.

Radivojevic shook off an injury to net the eventual game-winning
goal at 9:42 of the second period, deflecting a shot from the
point over goaltender Jose Theodore's left shoulder.

"Branko could have had two goals before," Wild coach Jacques
Lemaire said. "I think he was surprised to get the puck there."

Radivojevic went down late in the first period after taking a
hit from Peter Forsberg along the boards. Radivojevic remained
on the ice holding his head for over a minute before skating to
the bench.

Mikko Koivu had the second assist on the Radivojevic goal,
extending his point streak to four games.

"Give credit to Mikko," Lemaire said. "His line has been
playing well."

Backstrom shut down the Avalanche in the third period, finishing
29 saves to net his fourth victory over Colorado in five games
this season.

"It is good for our confidence to see that we can play against
these guys," Backstrom said.

"I thought Backstrom played well for them tonight," Sakic said.
"He made the big saves at the end, he got them the win."

Colorado had one final chance when Forsberg drew a hooking minor
against Pierre-Marc Bouchard with six minutes remaining, but
Backstrom was able to handle all five shots the Avalanche put on
net during the power play.

"Our power play was better tonight," Avalanche coach Joel
Quenneville said. "We didn't have many breaks around the net
tonight. With the quality and quantity of chances, generally
some more of those are going to go in."